Well here I am at the Continuous Worship Conference hosted by The Resurgence at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. As I type, Pastor Mark Driscoll is doing an excellent job of making sure we understand that worship is really the heart of everything. All our problems stem from our idolatry. Quite interesting stuff. Here are the basics:
A definition of worship must include Glory, Dedication, and Sacrifice. The idea is that glory, which means "weighty" in Hebrew, is the thing around which your values and life are centered. Dedication is the way we publicly declare ourselves as a worshiper. Sacrifice is the functional ways we offer ourselves to that center piece.
Other highlights:
"Worship is for God's Glory, our joy, and the common good."
The opposite of worship is idolatry, which is the default mode of the human heart. We tend to make good things the "best" things, and thereby replace God's place with something or someone else. For example, we don't need "child-centered" homes or "spouse-centered" homes. We need Christ-centered, child-friendly homes.
Calls Pagitt out for comments in "Listening to the Beliefs" where Pagitt says basically that the necessary distinction between matter and spirit and between creator and created is being reconsidered. But Romans 1 (and other places) clearly says that kind of thinking is garbage because God is God and we are idolators and there are no two ways around it.
Cool Driscollisms to throw atcha:
- Most people define what is good and bad worship based on their feelings. and will say "I didn't cry, so that wasn't good worship." Well, I can punch you, and you'll cry; will that make it better?
- I'm a charismatic with a seatbelt.
- Speaking on the danger of making family an idol: "It may be a sin to Focus on the Family.
- Children are a blessing from the Lord, but they are a bad God!
- Jay-Z used to sing songs about how bad it is in the hood. Then he went to Africa, and he saw there's a whole different kind of hood.
4 comments:
Thanks for the post! We have been praying that you enjoy the conference and are encouraged and refreshed. Thanks also for the driscolisms. Charismatic with a seat-belt. That's me (except maybe I have a couple of seatbelts). Lots to think about.
Thanks, Lauren, for your prayers. I'll try to post more thoughts from Seattle. Dr. Harold Best is up later today and then Pastor Tim Smith to close it out this evening.
Good to hear Driscoll is calling Pagitt out on that book. Seems like he and McLaren are racing to see who can get the furthest away from orthodoxy the fastest.
Thanks for the Driscollisms.
Well said, AJ. Thanks for your reply. I see the McLaren and Pagitt (and Jones, Ward and others for that matter) basically pouring soap suds and banana peels on what used to be merely a slippery slope.
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